Yummy Cake?

James made cake, but, well, it crumbled. Hey, at least he attempted to frost the crumbs!

(In his defense, he has made many a cake that has turned out beautifully, I blame the mix)

It tasted really good,the only difference was that you had to scoop out a pile into a bowl...kinda fun.

You Decide

While at the mocktail party, someone suggested that James looks a little like David Duchovny. I had never thought of that before, but I can kind of see it. What do you think?

A Shout Out to My Mother-in-law

After leaving BYU before she graduated, to raise a family, my mother-in-law, Cindy Hatch, graduated with her degree in genealogy! We are all so proud of her, and she is an inspiration to me to finish my degree, too. Yay!!!

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan

Can't leave this kid alone for a minute! And yes, Brett (Anderson) we do eat a lot of cake.

Oh, and that's a butter knife...I'm not that negligent.

Our Little Football Fan

Justin got the much-anticipated helmet on Friday. While he doesn't love it, he seems to be adjusting okay to it. Until his head grows and it starts to become more round, it won't fit very well, but I think that bothers James and I more than Justin. We are constantly re-adjusting it. On the first day, he only wore it for an hour, yesterday he wore it for four hours, today he wore it for six, tomorrow he'll wear it for eight, and by Tuesday, he'll be wearing it a whopping twenty-three hours a day for the duration. We're hoping it will only be for eight weeks, but it may be as long as six months. To help cute it up a bit, I bought a big blue 'Y' vinyl sticker to put on the side. Now it looks a little like a BYU football helmet. In fact, a lot of people at church today thought we were just really big football fans...now that would be funny if we were that fanatical!

You can see in the picture where the helmet puts pressure on his head. Those are the parts of his forehead that are pushed too far forward, it's like that on one side of his head in the back, too. The flatter parts of his head don't fill out the helmet, but the idea is that as his head grows, it will fill in the gaps.

We've also been going to a physical therapist and doing exercises at home to help the muscle imbalance in his neck. This is actually the root of the problem. He "dropped" early before he was born, and was smashed up against my side for a long time. This resulted in him being born with a flat head on one side, and under-developed neck muscles on one side. After he was born, in an effort to prop up his head, the muscles on one side of his neck (the stronger side) shortened and tightend. So, his head tilted to the side all the time, and he could only lay in one position, making the flatness of his head worse. This condition is known as "torticollis". He's made a lot of progress with the physical therapy, but if it's not enough, he'll also have to wear a TOT collar. It's a sort of neck brace to hold his head upright. Justin has the muscle mobility and the strength to hold his head up straight, now, but he tends not to out of habit. If that continues, he'll have to wear the collar, too.

It hasn't been too bad. At least these are all things that can be fixed and they're not life-threatening, and our insurance did end up covering the helmet, which is a small miracle in and of itself.

Rise and Shout!

It is so good to be a Cougar again, not just in spirit, but a real Cougar...though who am I kidding? I guess James is the one who is the Cougar...wait does this mean that I don't get an MBA at the end of two years? What a reality check! Anyways, we bought all sport passes this year, so we get to go to ALL BYU sporting events. We are so excited. Yesterday was the season opener for the Cougs, and we had a lot of fun...after the sun got blocked by some clouds and Matthew stopped complaining about being so thirsty. We won 41 to 17, though if you ask James, he'll only tell you how terribly they played, not that we killed the competition.

This picture is funny because James and I totally forgot about game-day traffic, and were stuck in it trying to get to the stadium. This guy was walking up University Ave., and was passing us, the ones in the car. We're pretty sure he made it to the stadium before we did.

In our haste to get out the door, I forgot to pack Justin's sun hat. Even though I plastered him with sunscreen, James was kind enough to donate his hat to Justin's cause.

Matthew was miserable at first (which means I was miserable, too.) We had to walk a long ways, the bleaches were too hot to sit on, and I think he felt like he was constantly going to fall because he was very clingy the first half of the game. But, through it all, he was happy to be there. Every morning when we take James to school, he makes sure to point out the stadium, and is counting down the days until the next game. He also kept really good tabs on Cosmo (the mascot), and wants me to pull off a small miracle next game in the form of a personal introduction. He's prayed for it, though, so who knows?

Who doesn't need a picture of popcorn on their blog?

And, this is the reason why Ethan comes to the games. So much like his mother! (For the record, I really do like going to the football games...I even started tearing up when the players first ran out onto the field, I was that happy to be there. And no, I'm not pregnant, I'm just emotional.)

Mocktail Party

So, last night James and I were invited to an MBA "mocktail" party at BYU. At first we thought the idea of a "mocktail" party was kind of weird. What, is BYU into the "appearance of evil" now, or what? But, once we got there, while talking to one of the 2nd year student mentors, he explained that alot of business is actually conducted at similar events out in the "real world" and that there is a need for BYU students to learn how to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner. So, basically it's good practice for all of us to order non-alcoholic drinks (italian sodas, in this case...yum!) and socialize while sipping something, and not look like a dork doing it. It's a way to get all of us uptight Mormons to relax a little and be personable. Apparently James and I aren't the only ones who need practice with that. Admittedly, it was a lot of fun to get all dressed up and have an evening out with James.
Before we tightened our belts for good, James and I tried to fill in the holes in our wardrobe. Not that we have the be -all, end-all of wardrobes, but they're better than they were. It's funny because James needed casual clothes to wear to school, and I needed dressier clothes for functions like this one. And, since every girl needs a little black dress in her repertoire of clothing(or so I've heard), this is the one I found, on sale (a killer deal, really), at Macys: sorry, we didn't take pictures of ourselves, so you'll have to settle for the model. I look practically the same, anyways :) ahem...After our drinks, we had the awesome opportunity to listen to Sheri Dew. I have always loved listening to her speak. She is one of those people who just command your attention. We were sitting only five rows back (so what if I counted?) and at times I think we even made eye contact (really drives her point home even more). She talked mostly about influence. How everyone has influence, whether big or small, and that we should use our influence for good. (I say 'we' and 'us' even though I'm not the MBA, because she geared her talk to include the spouses, too.) She talked a lot about being a good leader and how we should always do the right thing, no matter how much courage that takes. She also pointed out that our greatest roles as leaders will be in our own homes, and that our greatest team efforts will be between husband and wife. It wasn't just a church talk, though. She talked a lot about the business world, and some of her experiences as CEO of Deseret Book. I found a lot that I could apply to my life, and I resolved to be an even better support for James. They say that behind every successful man is a good woman, and I intend to BE that kind of woman. What can I say, it was fun. I hope we have a lot more events like this because I like acting grown up.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...at one point, Sheri Dew asked for comments on leadership, and James raised his hand and offered a brilliant one (no, I'm not biased). Look at him, coming out of his shell and everything!

Finally, Another Post!!

Wow, our lives have been crazy-busy lately. This is going to be a small novel, so I apologize in advance.

Let's see...

Our Anniversary:

James and I recently celebrated our 5th anniversary. In some ways it hardly seems possible that so many years have passed already, and in other ways, I can barely remember a time when James wasn't a part of my life. James was actually in New York City on a networking trip for his MBA on our anniversary, but a few days before he left, we went out to dinner at Biaggi's, a great Italian restaurant at the Gateway in Salt Lake. We also saw the new Batman movie...disturbing to say the least. While at dinner, James surprised me by giving me a small diamond pendant to celebrate our five years together. It's understated and perfect, I love it! These five years have been the best, most fulfilling years of my life, and I couldn't have picked a better man to share them with. I love you, baby!

Our Move:

After a lengthy flight delay, James finally made it home from New York at about 3 am on August 16th. A few hours later, we were packing up the U-haul for the second time in less than four months to move to our rental home in Utah County. Thank you to everyone that helped...you're all awesome! It was an exhausting day to say the least, but it feels good to be somewhere semi-permanent for awhile. The house is in a great neighborhood, and we seem to have landed in an elusive middle-stage-of-life ward...that means babysitters aplenty...hopefully! The house itself is a little old, and being a rental house, a little run-down, but it has a lot of great features. Part of the downstairs was converted into a playroom with a built-in playhouse...totally cool. The laundry room is much bigger than I'm used to, and the backyard is really nice, with plenty of room to play and lots of trees to give good shade. Now, as soon as I get the bathroom and kitchen re-caulked, it will be that much better. I also wish we could replace all the flooring, the kitchen sink, the kitchen counter, and paint...but hey, it's not our house, and really, it's not that bad. All in all, I think we'll be pretty happy here.

The MBA Program:

James has been involved in orientation since Wednesday of last week, and he's been enjoying it. So far, it hasn't involved too much work...the calm before the storm, or so I've been told. During the first semester, they are put into groups of five. They take all the same classes, and work on most, if not all, of their work together...lots and lots of group work. I think James was a little nervous about who would be in his group, but he's really happy with the guys he'll be working with. They're all married and have kids, and having that in common helps, I think. One of the days of orientation was spent at Camp Williams ( a National Guard training camp) where they were given "missions" and got to use their training facilities to complete them (things like water courses, walls to climb over, beams to run across, and the like). It was supposed to teach them to work efficiently as a group and to think creatively to solve problems...and while I'm sure it did, it was also fun for a bunch of grown men (and women) to play army. James said that members of the National Guard were out there watching, heckling, and taking bets on who would fall in the water first. Aside from the nasty sunburn that he got, I think James had a lot of fun that day.

Yesterday was the MBA BBQ, and we had a really good time. All the first-years in the program (and the families of the married students) were invited to go. It was a lot of fun. They held it at a park in Provo, and had BYU cater it. The food was good, there was a playground for the kids, and they even rented several big, inflatable toys. Matthew was in heaven. It was great to meet the the guys in James' group, and their families. Already, we've talked about a dinner for all of us to get to know each other better. How exciting...we're being social. I also got to catch up with some of the spouses that I met at the information day back in March. A couple of them already feel like life-long friends to me, and I've only talked to them a couple of times. It's exciting when people like that pop into your life. We are just so excited for this experience. Hopefully we can have a lot of fun, along with all the hard work.

Pictures, More Pictures

So, there will probably be a lot of posts in coming weeks of me playing with my camera...you'll just have to bear with me!

I'm planning on taking a new family picture in the next week or so, so, I've been trying to get better acquainted with Nikki, and also with the light here in Morgan. Last night, James and the boys were washing the car, and I brought out Nikki to practice. I'm really happy with the results, especially since it's been hard to get a natural pose from Matthew in awhile. Enjoy!